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The Greek words pharmakon, pharmakos, and pharmakeia are usually rendered “sorcerer” or “sorcery” in the King James Version of the Bible. That version was translated by 1611, and ever since then most theologians have followed in its footsteps, and have kept the interpretations of the medieval Englishmen of that time, while the rest of the world has become “modern”, and has updated its language. Or have we?

Here are the definitions of those words, from Liddell & Scott’s An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford University Press, Impression of 1999, First edition 1889. I will supply English transliterations in place of all of the original Greek words:

Note that Liddell & Scott gave only the New Testament as a source for their definitions for this use of the word pharmakos. And why did they not give secular Greek definitions? Because they would have had to put “apothecary”, “pharmacist” and “druggist”, yet perhaps that was already not politically acceptable by 1889, and so instead they put nothing! The large and scholarly Ninth Edition of the Liddell & Scott Greek-English Lexicon does likewise, defining the word in this sense identically, and citing only the Septuagint and the N.T., even though it cites the secular Greek writer Herodianus (2nd c. A.D.) on the pronunciation of the word. This is the only time that I have seen Liddell & Scott limit their definition of a word to the manner in which Bible translators have treated it, when the word appears also in Greek writers outside of the Bible. There is another sense in which the word pharmakos is used, and that will be discussed below.

Here is a lengthy citation concerning physicians from Strabo’s Geography, Book 15:1:60: “As for the Garmanes, he says that the most honourable of them are named Hylobii and that they live in forests, subsisting on leaves and wild fruits, clothed with the bark of trees, and abstaining from wine and the delights of love; and that they communicate with the kings, who through messengers inquire about the causes of things and through the Hylobii worship and supplicate the Divinity; and that, after the Hylobii, the physicians are second in honour, and that they are, as it were, humanitarian philosophers, men who are of frugal habits but do not live out of doors, and subsist upon rice and barley-groats, which are given to them by everyone of whom they beg or who offers them hospitality; and that through sorcery they can cause people to have numerous offspring, and to have either male or female children; and that they cure diseases mostly through means of cereals, and not through means of medicaments; and that, among their medicaments, their ointments and their poultices are most esteemed, but that the rest of their remedies have much in them that is bad; and that both this class and the other practise such endurance, both in toils and in perseverance, that they stay in one posture all day long without moving; and that there are also diviners and enchanters, who are skilled both in the rites and in the customs pertaining to the deceased, and go about begging alms from village to village and from city to city; and that there are others more accomplished and refined than these, but that even these themselves do not abstain from the common talk about Hades, insofar as it is thought to be conducive to piety and holiness; and that women, as well as men, study philosophy with some of them, and that the women likewise abstain from the delights of love.”

The word for sorcery which Strabo used above is pharmakon. Note that it is used of physicians, and their medicaments, or medications. However those who practice divining and enchanting are discussed separately following the discussion of the physicians! Therefore “sorcery” describes the use of pharmaceuticals, and not the magic or divining arts. The word pharmakeia, from the above definitions and examples, means little else but drugs – whether taken internally or applied topically.

It is clear to this writer that our word pharmaceutical and all related words were derived from these Greek words, and that they bear the same meanings. Our language isn’t really “modern” after all! It may be argued that a pharmaceutical is a drug, and not a potion, and that the Bible is talking only about potions. That argument is entirely subjective. The Bible makes no such distinction, but talks of pharmakeia in general. There is absolutely no proof supporting any such distinction between drugs and potions or sorceries: the distinction did not exist at all until the foundation of the modern pharmaceutical industry and the money of the international bankers who created it!

Here are all of the Scripture references where those words appear in the New Testament, from the Christogenea New Testament:

“20 And the rest of the men, those who had not been killed by these plagues, did not even repent from the works of their hands, that they do not worship demons and idols, things of gold and things of silver and things of copper and things of stone and things of wood, things which are able neither to see nor to hear nor to walk. 21 And they did not repent from their murders nor from their drugs [pharmakon] nor from their fornication nor from thefts.” ( Revelation 9:20-21, CNT )

“23 And the light of a lamp shall not shine in you hereafter! And the voice of the bridegroom and a bride shall not be heard in you hereafter! Because your merchants were the great men of the earth! Because by your pharmaceuticals [pharmakeia] have all the nations been deceived!” (Revelation 18:23, CNT )

“8 But for the cowards and the faithless and abominable and murderers and fornicators and drug-makers [pharmakos] and idolaters and all those who lie, their fate is burning in the lake in fire and sulfur, which is the second death!” ( Revelation 21:8, CNT )

“15 Outside are dogs and druggists [pharmakos] and fornicators and murderers and idolaters and any who love and make a lie.” !” ( Revelation 22:15, CNT )

“19 Manifest are the deeds of the flesh, such things are fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, 20 idolatry, use of drugs [pharmakeia], hostilities, contention, rivalry, wrath, intrigues, dissensions, sects, 21 envyings, drunkenness, revelries, and things like these; which I have announced to you beforehand, just as I have said before, that they who practice such things shall not inherit Yahweh’s kingdom.” (Galatians 5:19-21, CNT )

For the purposes of this paper, I am only going to cite here one Old Testament reference for the use of the word pharmakeia, Isaiah 47:9 from the KJV: “But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments.” How can “sorceries” be connected to the loss of children, and to widowhood? Think about birth-control pills. Think about the declining birthrates which many tie to the modern chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Think about the premature deaths of so many people who have substituted fast food and prescription drugs in place of sound nutrition and exercise. Do we see a problem today with wizards and sorcerers deceiving all of the nations, as we have just read in Isaiah and the Revelation? Or do we see the whole world captivated by a need for drugs? Read all of Isaiah chapter 47, and one should realize with certainty that it is much the same language as Revelation chapter 18, where pharmakeia is also condemned, and that both chapters are talking about the same thing: the condemnation of the great whore and mystery Babylon!

The Christian should look to Yahweh his God for healing, protection or deliverance from evils and enemies, and a long and healthy life. Those very things are promised to those who keep His laws, for instance the commandment at Exodus 20:12 states “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.” And the law also states, as Paul quotes Lev. 18:5 at Romans 10:5: “Moses writes of the justice which is from of the law, ‘That a man who practices these things shall have life by them.’” It is no mistake, that our English-speaking forebears used the word crises to describe what evils befell a man. For the word is directly from the Greek krisis, meaning judgement.

When men circumvent the laws of their God and Creator, they are forced to seek their own remedies for the resultant evils which befall them. Hence the search for pharmakeia in order to solve our troubles. This has opened a veritable Pandora’s Box, and our society’s dependence upon pharmaceuticals grows larger and larger with each passing day. We have become so alienated from our God, and have strayed so far from His laws, that even our infant children are pumped with all sorts of unnatural substances almost as soon as they are born, and we as a people have become drug-dependent at every stage of our lives! Drugs have become our escape both from the realities of life, and from the natural punishments resulting from our deviant behavior. But that escape is only a temporary illusion. For we know not what greater damage we have brought upon ourselves as a result of our turn away from God and towards our own devices.

When man was created, he was told that every green herb was for him for food. There are thousands of natural remedies that are useful for alleviating various ailments or which act as preventatives for those ailments. Very little capital is put into the development of the knowledge of these remedies. The reasons for this are solely economic: investment bankers cannot control what grows out of the ground, and once the studies are done and the results published, the prospects for financial profit are quite dim – the people will simply grow their own product! Instead, pharmaceutical companies scour the globe looking for naturally-occurring substances, especially in the plant world, and examine what those substances may be good for. Once a discovery is made, the drug companies strive to guard the information, and then they synthesize the substance, hoping to then profit from it once they patent it. Christians, in turning away from Yahweh their God, have now put their health and their lives into the hands of the anti-Christ jews: and what good will ever come from that? None whatsoever!

Pharmaceuticals and the laws of clean and unclean foods.

Whatever you ingest into your body in any manner is, in essence, a food. Even the ancients knew that the blood contained digested foods which then circulated throughout the body, nourishing its members (see Livy, History of Rome, 2.32.9-12). Injecting pharmaceuticals into your bloodstream is the same as injecting them into your cellular food supply: you are eating them. These pharmaceuticals, and especially vaccines, contain agents which you may otherwise never eat. Mercury, for instance, or cultures from the dead body parts of unclean animals, are regularly used in vaccine production. These all violate the laws handed down to Christians by Yahweh their God, and these laws should still be governing Christians unto this day. By receiving injections, one is eating unclean foods, even though he is bypassing the usual digestive process. And to consider the very nature of these unclean foods used in the production of vaccines and other medications, any normal person would grow ill at even the thought of eating such things!

Very strangely, the word pharmakos also had another use in ancient Greek, and Liddell & Scott offer another definition for that other sense of the word: “II. one who is sacrificed as an atonement for others, a scape-goat, Aristophanes; and, since worthless fellows were reserved for this fate, pharmakos became a general name of reproach, Iliad, Demosthenes.” When are Christians going to learn, that Yahshua Christ is their only true pharmakon? All pharmaceuticals are therefore unChristian, and contrary to the laws and the will of Yahweh our God.

If a jew is moving his lips, he's lying. If you see a rabbi, there has already been a crime!

I wish I knew "natural remedies",as the alternative/natural/naturopathy/homeopathic whatever you call it,system, and health stores cost as much or more than the regular medical system in place whenever I go to buy vitamins,supplements, natural food products, or colloidal silver,etc.

Les,There are a couple of wonderful older women in Maine who publish a lot of good information in this area. There website is http://gertrudeministries.org/ and click "health".Note, however, that they are vegetarians. I see no reason for vegetarianism, and in fact, would assert that real men certainly do need lots of red meat!

A few days ago I put out an article of this title, and many people have made further inquiry, or were even upset, because they have already been captivated by the pharmaceutical industry by one means or another. Yet I shall stand by my article, even if it does not address the immediate needs of people in general, as being wholly Scriptural. However here I will attempt to put some things into perspective: for those who are currently victims of the medical/pharmaceutical complex need not do anything rash.

Paul told the Corinthians: “ A bondman, you have been called? It must not be a concern to you, but then if you have the ability to become free, rather you use it. 22 For he who is called a bondman in the Prince is a freedman of the Prince; likewise he who is called free is a bondman of Christ.” (I Corinthians 7:21-22, CNT )

In a paper I wrote several years ago, Sin and the First Epistle of John, I said this, commenting upon 1 John 3:4-12: “All men sin, as we have seen John himself state above at 1:10, as Paul also did at Rom. 3:23, and so John can’t possibly be stating that all men are of the False Accuser. The children of Israel, who are the children of Yahweh, have an Advocate in Yahshua Christ even if they do sin, as John has already told us in his epistle at 2:1-2 and 12. Yet here John uses a phrase which he did not use in chapter 2 in respect to sin. Where earlier only the verb hamartanō is used to describe the act of sinning, here the verb poieō is used in conjunction with the noun hamartia to describe the practice, or even the creation of sin, at 3:4, 8 and 9, and so John’s intent here must be distinguished from, and understood within the context of, his earlier remarks concerning Israel and sin. It should be obvious here that John makes reference not to the occasional sinner, but to the authors of sin. John must mean not the fool who lusts and buys a pornographic video or magazine, but the pornographer himself; not the weak or sickly man who turns to drugs, but the drug manufacturer; not the desperate man who takes out a usurious loan, but the usurer himself. All men have weaknesses which they are entrapped by at one time or another (note Paul’s warning at Gal. 6:1), yet one who is tempted by such weakness is certainly not “of the False Accuser”, and no Israelite is “of the False Accuser”! The authors or creators of sin are of the False Accuser, and history reveals who they are. The panderers are the evil ones, not those who are weak!” (Emphasis added.)

Understanding all of this in the context of Scripture, I would not advise anyone to act rashly. I would not want you to run and flush your insulin down the toilet. Of course, neither can I give medical advice. I can only present the Scriptures as they were given, in the context of the culture and history of the times. Paul is cited above as having said “A bondman, you have been called? It must not be a concern to you…”, and so you should not be distressed if you are currently held captive. Yet Paul’s admonition to those who are held captive is that “if you have the ability to become free, rather you use it.” For many ailments there are natural remedies, and one should seek those if one can, and in conjunction with a pure heart and honest prayer, seek also the mercy of our Father, that you may be freed from your captivity. And if one is not in a position to do those things, then it would be best simply to realize and admit that one is a captive, but do not trouble yourself over it, and likewise with a pure heart and honest prayer, also seek the mercy of our Father.

William FinckChristogenea.org

If a jew is moving his lips, he's lying. If you see a rabbi, there has already been a crime!

Came across this in a sermon by Dr. Wesley Swift in 1957. Appropriate for today:

" The American Medical Association and the devil, which are probably the same thing, is getting ready to try to sell you on accepting sudden death and pagan diseases, unless you take their "shots". And the shots will give you a tiny bit of the disease so that they can try to see the effects on you and how they can profit by finding something to try to help you get over the effects of the shots. Remember they are telling you all these things so they will have a mass acceptance for all this. Do you know what the scripture said? ‘If you will keep My commandments and live by them, none of these sicknesses will effect you.’ So do you want to live by the law of the spirit, or do you want to be sick and take the shot? It is just that simple. Just that simple. You say--but I don’t keep all that law--I can’t. But yes, you can. It is your faith in Jesus Christ. Get this in your mind tonight. It is the Christ spirit in you which counts. Not what you have done in the flesh. Remember this is what I am claiming tonight, because HE finished that and set me free. Live by the law of the spirit and you do not have to accept all these things".

If a jew is moving his lips, he's lying. If you see a rabbi, there has already been a crime!

How about that ObamaCare - HealthCare REform Bill that states in part that implantable computer chips for identification and personal medical information placed under the skin of people will be implemented as part of the plan - FOR OUR OWN GOOD, OF COURSE. Folks will not be able to get their PHARMEKEIA without the chip. Isn't it time that we really start modifying our diets, get more exercise, spend lots and lots of time on the intranet researching natural alternative methods of getting well and getting off their drugs. No, I am 48 and have not been seen by a doctor in 20 years for any reason. I have had no medical insuirance in that time because I moved to fascist Colorado and no employers offered insurance I could afford in this state. So, I take very good care of myself. I have saved tens of thousands of dollars. I worked for a Master Herbalist, a Jew, for a period of time and saw him cure people of all kinds of terrible illnesses and get themm away from doctors. IT CAN BE DONE. Type 2 Diabetes can be completely reversed in 21 days on a special diet and some self control.

In any event. I am like you in that I have not seen a doctor in at least 20 years or more. I will NEVER take the drugs of the jewish drug pushers. I also strive to maintain YAH's dietary laws to the best of my undersanding. And if by some chance I do get sick, I will not seek out a doctor, nor will I take those drugs. If YHWH sees fit to heal me, then He will. He's done it before. If He sees fit to take me to my rest, then so much the better. This life holds nothing of value to me.

Ye chosen seed of Israel's race, ye ransomed from the fall, hail him who saves you by his grace, and crown him Lord of all. Hail him who saves you by his grace, and crown him Lord of all.

Princess of Judah...please, please, PLEASE don't tell us you're convinced the "jews" are of Judah! That would be sad indeed! I hope I am wrong in my impression I get from your reply, because you will NEVER find any of them here, or among any of your brethren, if indeed you are an Israelite! Being from of Judah does not make one a "jew", but an Israelite/Judahite, and the Scriptures (as well as this forum) are for ISRAELITES ONLY!

For the Word of Yahweh is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Heb. 4:12

I haven't taken medication or been to a doctor in three years and I've since cured my chronic hay-fever, allergies and gallstones perfectly naturally. It's amazing how one feels when not taking that jewish poison.

There is general acceptance of Homeopathy in the medical profession in Europe, yet this too is shot through with "sorcery"/alien gods for those who are unwary.

Many decades ago, after being over-supplied with malaria supposed preventive pills while on an extended stay in tropical Asia, a doctor said to me -- "One of the best ways to stay healthy is to stay away from doctors ...."

Another thought occurred in reference to global jew witchcraft -- the infamous Monsanto genetically modified "foods" ... There is a lot of resistance to this here, some referring to them as "frankenstein food" ....

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8 v 31)